Maiden Name VS Married name

Started by Marvin Caulk, (C) on Sunday, November 7, 2010
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I have hundreds (thousands?) of women in my tree that when they were uploaded Geni gave the maiden name and the married name as the same. Is there an easy way to make a woman take on her married name without retyping it.? It really gets tedious when the married name is made up of letters that are not on a US keyboard [ IE an umlaut A, ( Ä ) ]. Then I have to go to the husband, copy the last name, go to the woman, go to edit, cut the last name, get rid of the "last name" input value, then paste the name. It gets old after a while, Any Ideas?

Don't, unless you have some source telling that she had a married name and used it.

As an example in Norway they was allowed to use a married name first in 1923 and it is almost gone again now, so assuming a married name can be fatal in the correctness in a tree.

These are all US persons born and married in the US during the last couple centuries. Women used thier married name more than their maden name in the US during that time and I find a lot of people use their married name instead of the maiden name, also it makes for better matches when both are input. I understand other places do things like hyphenating names ect, but this does not apply to these women.

Brox, I believe Marvin wants to blank the last name field. If he doesn't know if the person had a married name, and can't verify that they didn't. Doesn't having a blank for a last name more accurate?

In any case you are probably fabricating facts.

The international genealogy standard is using the birth name.

The "form" has a place for both the birth and married name. If you use the birth name as the married name, and you KNOW that it is wrong then that makes the file incorrect.
I'm sorry but you are not " fabricating facts" when you know that a woman (and in general all women) that was married in the US during the last couple of centuries used thier married name. This not only was common practice, but even today after the marrage ceramony, the Priest, Rev, or other clergy states "ladies and gentleman, I give you Mr and Mrs So-and_so." Only in the last few years have women decided not to take on the mans name in some cases. This may not be true in some countries but in the US and Canada it is a fact not fabrication.

@Jonathan scott Kreengel
Yes blanking out the last name field instead of making her last name the same as the married name would be perfered. The maiden name remains the same no matter how many times she marries, but if she was married many times then she would have used the other last names at one time or another.

OK one last try, making her last name the same as her married name

Lets say you're looking for a grave marker (in the US or Canada). You would not look for the woman under her maiden name, in most cases you would find her marker under her married name unless never married or changed her name back to her maiden name. (This requires a court order that would be on file), If buried in a family cemetary, it is more likely that she would be married in her husbands family cemetary, The software is clearly set up to use both, and if both are known, they should be used. If only one is known then it should be either placed in the married or maiden name spot but NOT in both. That would undermine the purpose of having a place for the married AND maiden names.

But back to the original question, is there an easy way

I have to disagree with you Marvin,

It it was known that the last never changed then having the same name in both the last name and the maiden (birth) name field more clearly indicates that to be true.

True, If you know that the last name never changed, then yes make them both the same, but if it did change having both names better defines the search, (If the name did not change for an Anglo-Saxon, modern woman in the US and Canada because of "lib" preferance, it should be so mentioned in the overview) But if you are unsure, then leave it blank, otherwise you are making the statement that her maiden name and her married name are "in fact" the same which may or may not be true.
I have also noticed that there seems to be a general practice of using the maiden name spot for an alt spelling of the last name (both for men and women) ie James Brown (Browne) (Browne beinng the maiden/alt name). I Mayself have used the maiden name spot when I knew that they changed there name (a very common pratice, and you are asked what you want your american name to be on the aplication for US Citizenship) So a name my end up John/Johann with the last name of James (Schwartz), His american name was John James but his name before he moved to the US was Johann Schwartz. This may confuse an onlooker but when it was within the last few generations the number of people that even notice it are few so there's little explaining to do.
Before you ask how to give a man a maiden name(for those who haven't done it yet). Change him to a female, give him a maiden name, change him back to a male.

I agree with Marvin. I happened to have female members of both my family and my husband's family whose married name and maiden name are the same, either because they married a cousin or because they married someone with the same last name. That's a special situation and to my mind it's confusing if one does not give all the information, that is both the husband's name and the maiden name in a culture where the wife legally adopts the man's name. I have noted as Marvin said that documents have to be searched both on maiden and on married name when on Ancestry. In the U.S. anyway, you cannot assume that documents are indexed by the maiden name after marriage.

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